Confirm Todd Blanche and reject the right’s culture of surrender

President Trump nominated acting Attorney General Todd Blanche last month to lead the Justice Department permanently. After more than a year as deputy attorney general, Blanche has shown that he is not merely capable of doing the job. He is the man the department needs now.

I had the privilege of serving alongside Blanche. He is smart, principled, and fearless. His record proves it.

Blanche left a lucrative private practice to serve the country. He does not need this job. The country needs him in it.

The Trump administration’s approach to law enforcement and immigration has already delivered historic results. Violent crime has reached record lows, cartel activity has declined, and property crime has fallen dramatically.

Blanche has also led the effort to reverse the Justice Department’s politicization under President Joe Biden and Attorney General Merrick Garland. Their tenure included imprisoning grandmothers who entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, arresting pro-life protesters, spying on eight Republican senators, surveilling Catholics who attended the traditional Latin Mass, and deploying the National Security Division against concerned parents at school board meetings.

That two-tiered justice system helped drive Americans to the polls for Trump. Ending the abuses is not enough. The department must also repair the damage by dismissing corrupt prosecutors, enforcing the law equally against powerful left-wing actors, and restoring people wronged by the government. Blanche has shown the courage to do exactly that.

Some Senate Republicans objected to the Justice Department’s now-abandoned plan to compensate victims of Biden-era abuses. Yet as the late Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) noted, the United States has a long tradition of compensating victims of government injustice.

Justice requires more than ending misconduct. Government must also make victims whole when it can. That is what giving them their due means.

National Review summarized its objection this way: “No matter whose name is on the DOJ letterhead, the president is running the Justice Department.”

That criticism ignores Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent in Morrison v. Olson, which he described as one of his favorites. Scalia argued that the Constitution vests all executive power in the president — “this does not mean some of the executive power, but all of the executive power” — and trusts voters to choose a president who will exercise it for the common good. A Justice Department fully independent of the president would answer neither to the nation’s elected chief executive nor to the voters who chose him.

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National Review also argues that Blanche cannot stand up to Trump because he once served as Trump’s personal lawyer. The opposite is more plausible. Who is better positioned to deliver hard news: someone who put his career on the line to defend the president, or someone the president barely knows?

Presidents have often chosen attorneys general with whom they shared close professional ties. Ronald Reagan selected his personal attorney, William French Smith, and later Ed Meese, his former California chief of staff and legal affairs secretary. George W. Bush chose Alberto Gonzales, who had served as his general counsel in Texas.

National Review’s deeper objection seems to have less to do with Blanche and everything to do with Trump. But refusing to confront weaponized government allows wrongdoers to escape accountability and invites the next administration to repeat the abuse.

The left has no hesitation about using power to advance its goals. Some conservatives still treat passivity as principle even after voters put them in office to govern. Trump’s rise was a rejection of that bloodless approach to politics.

Blanche built an impressive prosecutorial record in one of the nation’s most prestigious U.S. attorney’s offices. He left a lucrative private practice to serve the country. He does not need this job. The country needs him in it.

Todd Blanche has met the moment and exceeded conservative expectations. The case against him reflects the old conservative preference for “yelling stop” rather than exercising legitimate power. Senate Republicans should reject that reflex and confirm him as attorney general.